


All My Wishes

by chii_kakumei



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Girls, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 05:51:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14158179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chii_kakumei/pseuds/chii_kakumei
Summary: Aoi Zaizen is a magical girl by the name of “Blue Angel” trying to gather up all the scattered Hope Fragments in order to have her wish granted before time runs out. Ema Bessho is a treasure hunter trading in Fragments, which some call the lives of Magicals themselves. She’s the kind of woman that Aoi wants to avoid at all costs… So it’s a shame that Aoi finds herself in her debt.





	1. et ego salvum te

**Author's Note:**

> loosely inspired by Madoka, but I haven't seen Madoka in years so yeah  
> it'll have some kusanagi/yusaku in the background kinda eventually but idk if it's enough to bother tagging for yet

Blue Angel is Den City’s most charismatic Magical. She shines the brightest, soars the highest, and defeats the most demons born from despair. There isn’t a child in the city that doesn’t know her name and not an adult who doesn’t look at her and wish they too had used their borrowed magic to such appeal.

She’s the protector of Den City, and all the Magicals know her by her Crystal, cheery and blue as her persona. People still fear the dark, but parents reassure their children with whispers of Blue Angel and her heroic deeds, striking down the demons of the night. No one can stand against her, not demon nor Magical nor creature unknown...

But Aoi has never seen a demon like this, before. It’s big and lumbering, and eyes bulge out of its fleshy body. There are dozens of them in different colors, every single one of them set on her. They’re not properly circular, either. Instead they gleam at strange angles like cut gemstones. Its body, propped up on stout, rounded legs like pegs, pulses erratically like it’s beating out of time. If that’s its way of expressing excitement, then Aoi doesn’t want to know what its other emotions are.

Aoi stands against it and braces herself. It takes up half the street and stands nearly as tall as the buildings, crushing abandoned cars under its advance with the sickening sound of rending metal. It lumbers towards her, and Aoi summons her whip with a clap of her hands, readies herself to leap above it and destroy it-

And then those eyes shift. No longer are they on her, and she scrambles to see what they’ve locked on. A child. Aoi swears internally and races towards the little girl standing frozen in an alleyway. They must have been separated from their mother when the demon had first emerged, because the street is deserted now. Everyone had fled after she’d called a warning… Except the child, petrified with fear. Magic propels her steps forwards, faster than any normal human could run. She’s never let a citizen get hurt before. She isn’t about to break that trust now.

“Watch out!” Aoi yells, and leaps towards the child fast as she can. She just barely makes it. As she pulls the child into her arms and rolls, one hand protectively on the back of their head, something sweeps over her head and sears away the air with the force of its magic, burning it right from her lungs.

“Run,” she tells the child, and the child sprints away without so much as a nod. Aoi spins on her heel and prepares to face down the demon. But the demon is already there. It reaches out with a sleek black hand extending from one of its pupils and slams Aoi into the wall of the alley.

She hits it hard and what remains of her breath leaves her all at once. But she doesn't have time to rest. Aoi all but throws herself down from the wall, ducking and rolling as another hand sweeps over her head, grasping at her. Aoi strikes her whip at it, and the magic slices neatly through, giving her time to roll over and back to her feet.

She underestimates it. When she goes to attack again it’s already upon her, bursting with a magic she knows she can’t withstand. Aoi faces it with eyes wide open, trying to do something, anything, because she doesn’t want this to be the end-!

But another magic overtakes it, one Aoi doesn’t understand. It’s different than anything she’s ever felt before, and it’s not the familiar aura of any of the witches or their sworn Magicals she’s encountered. It’s bright and lively pink, cutting straight through the black hands of the demon, sparks of magic tearing them down to shreds. The energy Aoi feels from it is refined, precise, dangerous… And something about it is a little sad. She doesn’t know why she feels that way about it, and she doesn’t have time to try.

A figure flies from the rooftop, the steel of a blade flashing pink in their hand. They stab it hard into the flesh of the demon as they fall, long hair billowing out behind them. Though it’s just a knife, the figure drags it straight through the demon’s body, a straight line right down its center. It peels apart the flesh to reveal the dark mass of discontent inside, turning a slow pink as the magic devours the negative emotion. The woman pulls out her knife, kicks off the side of the demon, making it stagger off its feet, and lands nearly in front of Aoi as the demon bursts.

Though she sees it as if it’s in slow motion, it all happens so fast. Her fall takes a few seconds at most, and Aoi can’t so much as lift a finger to help. The demon fades, falling to pieces of darkness that vanish before they can hit the ground. They dance around the shoulders of the woman who faces Aoi now, blade vanishing with a shake of her gloved hand. A Hope Fragment flutters down to replace it, glowing a six-colored rainbow between her fingers.

It lights up her face, and though half of it is covered by a mask, Aoi knows exactly who this is. Because Aoi knows all the rumors about Ghost Girl. That she’s a terrifying woman, something not Magical but certainly not human that deals in Fragments for the exchange of favors. That once she owns enough promises of favors, then she all but owns your soul.

But Aoi’s first thought isn’t any of the warnings she’s gotten. It’s that Ghost Girl is the most breathtaking woman Aoi has ever seen.

For a moment they watch each other, then Ghost Girl breaks the silence.

“Not even a thank you?” Ghost Girl teases. Or at least, Aoi sincerely hopes it’s teasing. She doesn’t want it to be a threat. None of the stories have mentioned Ghost Girl attacking a Magical, but she can’t be sure. After all, stories only exist because there are people left to tell them.

“It’s my job to defend everyone from people like you,” Aoi accuses. Ghost Girl isn’t a demon, but the way the stories paint her, she’s even worse than one. Magicals can beat demons. No one in recent memory has even dared to fight Ghost Girl.

“Oh, but Blue Angel,” Ghost Girl says, leaning forwards with a mischievous look in her eyes, “That’s not true, is it?”

Aoi steps back. She doesn’t like that accusation at all.

Ghost Girl straightens up and rolls the Hope Fragment between her fingers. It shines with a bright, multicolored light, a piece of rainbow between the woman’s pale fingers. It catches in her unearthly magenta eyes, and leaves Aoi stunned by her when all she _should_ be feeling is indignant. “You’re just a Magical like all the rest. Out to fulfill her own selfish wish… right?”

"My wish is-"

“World peace? Utopia? Those aren’t the kind of wishes that the Hope Fragments can grant, and you know it.” Ghost Girl laughs, though it’s obviously not meant to be mocking. It’s a light sound, but clearly carries some sort of darkness inside it. Aoi immediately wants to unravel it, but as soon as Ghost Girl started she stops. “The world would be very, very troubled if those kinds of wishes could be granted at the whims of one mere Magical.”

Aoi crosses her arms. “So what if my wish is selfish? It still deserves to be granted.”

Ghost Girl’s mouth is covered, but Aoi swears that she’s smiling at her. The woman snaps her fingers, and the Fragment turns a bright red before it disappears. “Then you should be trying a little bit harder, shouldn’t you?”

And with that challenge, Ghost Girl waves her hand before her face, magic sparking from her palm. In a blink of the eye she vanishes without a trace, leaving Aoi alone in the alleyway. Aoi’s hand goes instinctively to the blue gem in the center of her tie, broken but still glowing bright with the proof of magic. _What does she know about how hard I’m trying?_

Nothing, she decides. Ghost Girl can’t know a thing about how hard Aoi has worked the past few years. As people begin to crowd back into the street, Aoi turns her back and runs, searching for a different demon, tonight. That fragment wasn’t hers, anyway. If Ghost Girl wants it, then she has every right to it for defeating that strange demon.

_The sooner I forget about this, the better…_

But Aoi bites her lip, lets her wings carry her into the sky, and knows that she can’t do that. No matter how much she doesn’t want to think about the implications… Ghost Girl did just save her life. Which means, in other words, that Aoi owes her life to her. And if she decides to call in that favor one day…

Aoi shakes her head, wills her wings to take her further up into the night sky, and watches the lights of Den City spread out before her. For now, she has a job to do, and a wish to have granted. And if she has to be in Ghost Girl’s debt for the sake of that wish, then…

Aoi’s heart skips a beat as the gem on her chest pulses. _Another demon._

She flies off towards it, following the traces of its magic. This time, she won’t fail.


	2. cor meum ducit me ad vos

To be a Magical is not to be eternal. The magic contracted from a witch can only course through a human body for three years until it’s burned itself up like a well gone dry. That means a Magical only has three years to gather up enough Hope Fragments that resonate with them... Or die trying, rather than face the shame of their power vanishing with their wishes still unfulfilled.

Aoi Zaizen has used up two and a half of them. It’s not like she’s let them gone to waste, not in the least. In her hand she rolls around a rough-edged Crystal, blue as aquamarine, glowing dimly in the moonlight. It’s shaped like a heart. Or at least it would be, if it wasn’t still missing two jagged chunks. The first is in the center, a hole straight through to the other side. If Aoi holds it up to her eye to watch the city below her move in the dead of night, then she can see it filtered through a kaleidoscope of pretty blues.The second is on the right curve, a jagged wound like a stab into its side. The pieces to fill them are certainly going to be more than just two, because the first thing Magicals learn after how to fight is that demons give up just slivers of a whole.

Aoi runs her thumb across the jagged outer edge and then closes her fist around it. She’s almost done. Even if it’s another seven pieces, or almost a dozen… She’s almost there. She stares out into the cityscape, lit brightly and bustling far as the eye can see even in the dim night. 

_ People aren’t afraid of what lurks in the darkness because of people like me, _ Aoi thinks, feeling the rush of the wind in her short hair, feeling it as it blows her skirt, trying to push her off the edge of the apartment complex roof. She holds on carefully to the metal pole of the corner of the rooftop with one hand, waiting for something in her crystal to respond.

Thankfully, she doesn’t have to wait long. The nights where no demons appear are good for the people, but bad for Magicals, and Aoi kind of hates how relieved she feels when her Crystal does suddenly begin to pulse with energy, telling her that a demon is near.

Aoi takes a breath, lets go, and steps off the rooftop. The transformation takes her as she presses the heart to her chest, wrapping her up in weightless, beautiful light. Everything follows the motion of her hands. She sweeps them down her body, unfurling folds in the fabric that hadn’t been there before. Hands flick outwards as purple cuffs appear on each wrist, then pull back quickly to run through her hair, drawing it out long to either side of her head as the magic ties it up and turns it blue. Curling her hands around her ears brings to life the earrings, tracing them down her neck and shoulders brings to life her choker and arm bands. She waves her hands down and out.  Two drops of magic appear in the air below her, and she steps neatly into them, one foot after the other. But she’s still falling, and the ground is approaching fast. Aoi smiles, and arches her back as wings burst from between her shoulder blades, flapping against the press of gravity with her will and slowing her descent to the ground as she rights herself. She steps lightly on the ground as her wings sink into solid, dormant shapes behind her. With a smile Aoi touches her cheek, and a clover springs to life there, her final touch. If anyone had been around, she might have said her catchphrase. But people rarely are, in this part of town at this time.  _ And that’s a good thing _ .

At night, the underbelly of Den City likes to crawl with demons and all the other negative emotions people try to keep hidden during the day. Resentment, fear, anger… Aoi presses her hand against the Crystal at her chest and senses the beat of magic from it as she turns a slow circle in place. Once she turns halfway, the pulsations abruptly grow stronger against her palm.  _ There _ , she thinks, and takes off towards it in a sprint that far surpasses a normal human pace.

Her heart beats in time with the magic of her Crystal, drawing her closer  to her prey for the night. Though Aoi doesn’t really need it. The way the demon shrieks and screams into the night around the mostly-deserted business district is good enough for her to track.

Aoi whirls around a corner, summons her whip, and lets her magic soar. The demon isn’t much. It’s a sort of dragon-like thing, small and swift but no match for Aoi’s wings. They rush together up the side of one of the buildings, and while it manages to dodge a few of her strikes, Aoi’s whip wraps around its tail and slams it down into the roof of the building before it can get away. While it’s stunned, Aoi takes it down with a few well-timed strikes of her whip and a final blast of magic pulled straight from her heart, exploding against the demon, enveloping it in white feathers that tear it to shreds. 

The Fragment that falls neatly into her palm as the demon fades back into whatever hell it came from is a glowing purple. Aoi frowns. That’s useless to her. She’d been so certain this would be one of her final few fragments, too, with how fast her pulse had been during the chase. It’s anticipation only a veteran Magical could know, and it’s so unusual for her to be wrong. 

Suddenly Aoi turns, because she’s sure she’s not alone. The presence of another Magical is easy enough to sense when they’re transformed like this. A sure way for newcomers not to barge in on a veteran’s territory. Aoi senses immediately that it’s not Ghost Girl, and she’s a little disappointed. She’s come up with a lot of questions in one day. And like it or not, there’s only one person that has the answers. 

“Playmaker,” Aoi says with narrowed eyes, because it wouldn’t be the first time Playmaker has stopped by to try and steal one of her kills. Though he’s only been active a year, he’s already a reputation for ruthless efficiency on the streets of Den City. The way his heart already gleams with power to rival that of a veteran’s is proof enough of that. 

“Blue Angel,” he returns, cordially but a little flat. Aoi sighs, then tosses him the Fragment. He snatches it out the air easily, though the question is obvious in his eyes.

“I can’t use it. That’s your color, isn’t it?” She asks, but she already knows. That shade of luminous purple can’t be anyone else’s, the way it’s a perfect match to the heart set into the bracelet on his wrist. Playmaker opens his fist and obviously sees the same.

“Thank you,” he says, and closes his fist back around the Fragment.

Aoi shakes her head. “It wasn’t like I had any use for it. But why are you here, Playmaker? You don’t seek people out without a reason.”

He doesn’t seek out anyone, really. Aoi might think she’s special, if Playmaker himself wasn’t such bad news. He says, casually, “I was hoping you had some information.”

Aoi crosses her arms. “If I do, it won’t be free.”

“I know,” Playmaker says, and with a touch of his hand against his gauntlet brings out two fragments, glowing blue. And those  _ are _ hers, definitely. Aoi all but demands them from him then and there. She bristles. She and the one of the former Magicals she’d shared top spot in Den City with, Go Onizuka, had an agreement to swap any Fragments of the other’s they’d found. Playmaker, however, is much flightier and much less bound by the goodwill rules. Seeing her Fragments in his hands makes her skin crawl with a desperation she doesn’t like. She knows he won’t give them back to her just because she’d done the same.

Playmaker continues, “I need information on Revolver. If you can bring me anything I don’t already know, they’re yours.”

“Looking for anything in particular?” Aoi asks, trying to hide the shudder up her spine at the name. He’s just as mysterious a figure in the Magical scene as Playmaker is, but rumors say he’s much more dangerous. “I don’t know, but I can get in contact with someone who does.”

“His location, mostly. And whatever he’s hiding. The Fragments will be waiting for you once you find out,” Playmaker says, but Aoi stops him with a sharp  _ wait _ .

When he turns back to look at her she clarifies, “One in advance. I have to do something dangerous to get that information. Consider this insurance.”

Playmaker throws the fragment at her, and Aoi catches it swiftly. She slots it neatly into place on one of the cracked edges of the gem centerpiece of her tie. Immediately she feels a wave of magic rush over her, a bit of added strength. 

“I’ll meet up with you as soon as possible.”

And then Playmaker is gone, lost to the night. Aoi’s skin still crawls at the thought of that Fragment of hers, kept hostage by a wild card, and she leaps into action- literally. Aoi steps off the side of the building and lets her wings burst to life, carrying her above the city.

What Aoi has to do  _ now _ is track down Ghost Girl. It’s not something she wants to do. It’ll make the rumors fly if news of it gets out, and the last thing she wants to look is desperate. But one way or another, she has to do it.

 

It takes three days to track down Ghost Girl to an abandoned warehouse out in the sketchier part of town. Well… Aoi says abandoned, but the truth is that it’s still stacked high with boxes and packing material strewn across the floor. Aoi steps inside the dim space and immediately decides she doesn’t want to know what the boxes are for. Her skin is already crawling with two people holding her most important things over her head. No need to add any more reasons.

“Welcome,” Ghost Girl calls, and Aoi hates that she has to search the area for any sight of the woman. Becoming a Magical has given her strength. Being vulnerable isn’t a way she ever wants to feel again.

Ghost Girl waits for her atop a stack of crates piled high in the warehouse, almost up to the balcony that runs around the perimeter. She perches delicately at the edges of them, like someone unreal. The moonlight backlights her, spilling over her black clothes, and her eyes gleam. Aoi has to remind herself that Ghost Girl is dangerous because of her beauty, like a siren, luring away Magicals and their souls. “You called me out, Blue Angel? I have to say, I didn’t think you would.”

“I did. I want information from you. That’s another thing you deal in, right?” Aoi opens her palm. Sitting in the center of them are four golden-orange shards, gleaming a pretty yellow in the dim light of the abandoned warehouse. “Don’t worry. I have payment. And you can have it all in advance, as long as your information is accurate.”

“That’s a very good deal you’re giving me,” Ghost Girl says, touching a finger to her lips as if in contemplation before leaping down to the warehouse floor to join Aoi. “What’s the catch? I know you don’t frequent the dark side too often, but even you should know the value of information. So tell me, Blue Angel. What’s worth so much bargaining power you’re willing to pay me up front?”

The moment of truth. If Ghost Girl doesn’t have this information, then Aoi doesn’t know who will. She can’t have Playmaker holding this over her head, because it’s already been too long.

“I want to know the location of the Magical known as ‘Revolver’,” Aoi replies, “and everything else you know about him.”

“You’re asking for very, very dangerous information,” Ghost Girl says, taking a few steps closer. It makes Aoi acutely aware of that strange look in her eyes, almost worried. “Especially if you’re going to use it for what I think you’re going to use it for.”

If it really is worry, then Aoi thinks that it shouldn’t be. She’s capable of taking care of herself. That night had just been a fluke, and she doesn’t want Ghost Girl thinking otherwise. She’s not easy prey.  “And what exactly would that be?”

Ghost Girl says, very pleasantly, “Well, steal all the Fragments he’s been hoarding, I imagine.”

Aoi tries not to let the surprise show on her face. Given the way she feels Ghost Girl’s smile, the twinkle she sees in the woman’s eyes, Aoi figures she fails. “If he was really doing that, wouldn’t there be rumors..?”

Ghost Girl holds out her hand, and it takes Aoi a moment to realize what she’s teasingly asking for. Aoi tosses her a fragment, and Ghost Girl catches it gracefully in her gloved palm.

“Do you remember how long ‘Revolver’ has been active in this city for?” Ghost Girl asks, twirling the fragment between her fingers before vanishing it somewhere that Aoi can’t fathom. The pouch on her waist, maybe, or some store of them somewhere far away. It doesn’t matter. She considers the question instead.

“A year,” Aoi says, but the moment it leaves her lips it sounds wrong. Aoi imagines Ghost Girl wouldn’t have asked her if it was correct. 

“That’s not wrong,” Ghost Girl replies, “but that’s not correct, either. That’s just how long the Magicals here have known about him. Thanks to Playmaker, really. I’ve no idea what their feud is, but it’s made for some interesting developments.”

Ghost Girl chuckles, a bit, and Aoi gets a sense of dread that she can’t really explain. She just knows she doesn’t want to hear Ghost Girl’s next words, even though she must. “Do you want to know how long Revolver has been active for? According to my sources, five years.”

“That means he’s like  _ you _ ,” Aoi accuses, and Ghost Girl raises a hand to her chest. 

“If you say it like that, I might just get offended. He and I are nothing alike. In fact… If I had to pick someone he resembles, then it would be  _ you _ , Blue Angel.”

“Just… Just tell me where Revolver is,” Aoi says, trying to regain control of the conversation by throwing the rest of the Fragments at Ghost Girl, all at once. Ghost Girl catches them easily, Fragments landing in her palm and vanishing with a snap of her fingers. 

_ “Stardust Road _ . Tell that to Playmaker, and I’m sure he’ll understand.” 

And that’s it. Their conversation is over, so Ghost Girl turns to leave. But Aoi can’t let her do that, not yet. She’s floundering, and she hates it. But despite all of the rumors, Ghost Girl hasn’t made one strange move yet. So Aoi has to ask. “Ghost Girl. About you saving me…”

“Are you worried?” Ghost Girl laughs. She turns graceful on her heel and takes a step closer to Aoi, but it’s not threatening at all. “I’m not as bad as the rumors say. I promise you that.”

Aoi doesn’t know if she can believe her or not. Ghost Girl closes the distance between them while she’s deciding, and then she has no choice at all.

“When you decide to go to  _ Stardust Road, _ I’ll be there as your support,” Ghost Girl says, and curls something into Aoi’s palm. It’s cold and vaguely metallic, but Aoi can’t open her palm to see what it is when Ghost Girl is holding it closed. Her fingertips are soft on Aoi’s wrist. She hates that it’s so distracting.

“Because you’re a treasure hunter,” Aoi accuses. No better than Playmaker holding her to a deal with the threat of making her fight for the Fragment. Maybe even worse. Aoi has to keep reminding herself. A demon pretending to be kind is still a demon.

Ghost Girl just chuckles and parrots, “Because I’m a treasure hunter.”

And then she’s gone, stepping back and vanishing in the moonlight. Aoi blinks. She hadn’t even sensed Ghost Girl starting to use her magic. She reminds herself again. This is a business transaction, and that’s why Ghost Girl has been so helpful. _ She’s just after her own interests. That’s all. _

Aoi unclenches her fist. Sitting in the palm of her hand is a glass heart- smooth and tinted faintly pink, like her earrings, or like a cheap imitation of a Magical’s Crystal. Aoi almost throws it across the room. She’s sure she’s being taunted. After all, what else could it be?

But at the last moment, she doesn’t. She stops, turns out of the warehouse, and clutches that glass heart tight in her palm. If she’s being taunted, then she’ll just use that as motivation to do better. After all. She has one more Fragment on the way, and then she’s almost done.

_ Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more, and everything will be okay again. _


End file.
